Thomas Grouses About Small Role

Super Bowl XXVI - Bills Q&A

January 27, 1992

To running back Thurman Thomas: Do you think the team didn't play as well as it should have?

Thomas: ''We made a lot of mental mistakes. We were very prepared, but I felt our overall performance was good, but not to where we could win the football game. . . . I don't know why or how our offensive coaches were thinking, but we didn't try to run the ball enough early in the game. I felt I should have been used more in the first half. If the running game is not working, we can't get away from it.''

Also to Thomas: What happened when you couldn't find your helmet on the Bills' first offensive series, and Kenneth Davis took your place for two plays?

Thomas: ''Normally, I put my helmet at the end of the bench. This time somebody moved it, and everybody was moving around and didn't know where it was. It was very frustrating. I was very upset. The first two plays were running plays, and I wasn't in there to get it.'' (He found it under the bench.)

To Steve Tasker, special-teams captain: What happened on the game-opening kickoff that it had to be repeated?

Tasker: ''Brad (Daluiso, kicker) lifted his hand to signal he was ready to kick it, and Jerry (Markbreit, the referee) gave him a signal . . . which Brad interpreted (as approval), and he kicked the ball. Obviously, it wasn't intentional.''

To coach Marv Levy: You seemed awfully upset with the officiating just before halftime, when a pass intereference penalty wasn't called and then Andre Reed was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. What about that?

To quarteback Jim Kelly: You hit your head pretty hard on the artificial turf on one play in the fourth quarter. What happened?

Kelly: ''He (Martin Mayhew) went over the top of me, and my head hit the turf. They're calling it a mild concussion. They said I went out on my feet, and I was (yelling) at the referee. I don't remember that. I'm fuzzy. That's football. When you get hit a few times, it will happen. I got hit a few times. The whole second half was kind of fuzzy. I'm sure when I look back at the films, I'll remember. I probably won't look at them, though.''

To nose tackle Jeff Wright: What was the feeling on the sideline after Kurt Gouveia's interception on the first play of the third quarter and the Redskins scored to go ahead, 24-0?

Wright: ''That took a little air out of us. The first play, boom, another seven points. The points were starting to mount on us. We could never get them to do what we wanted them to do. They were dictating the game, and that's not the type of defense we wanted to play.''

To defensive end Leon Seals: You seem frustrated by the loss.

Seals: ''I want to play for someone else. I truly want out of Buffalo. It's not the people of Buffalo. It's the organization. There's a lot of personal stuff. For me to get up and say this or that, I can't get into it now. I just want out.''